Published 2006

The World Coal Quality Inventory: South America

Executive Summary—Introduction

The concepts of a global environment and economy are strongly
and irrevocably linked to global energy issues. Worldwide coal production
and international coal trade are projected to increase during the
next several decades in an international energy mix that is still
strongly dependent on fossil fuels. Therefore, worldwide coal use
will play an increasingly visible role in global environmental, economic,
and energy forums.

Policy makers require information on coal, including coal quality
data, to make informed decisions
regarding domestic coal resource allocation, import needs and export
opportunities, foreign policy
objectives, technology transfer policies, foreign investment prospects,
environmental and health
assessments, and byproduct use and disposal issues. The development
of a worldwide, reliable, coal
quality database would help ensure the most economically and environmentally
efficient global use of
coal. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with many
agencies and scientists from the
world’s coal producing countries, originally undertook a project
to obtain representative samples of coal
from most of the world’s producing coal provinces during a
limited period of time (roughly 1998-2005),
which is called the World Coal Quality Inventory (WoCQI). The multitude
of producing coal mines, coal
occurrences, or limited accessibility to sites in some countries
can preclude collecting more than a single
sample from a mine. In some areas, a single sample may represent
an entire coal mining region or basin.
Despite these limitations in sampling and uneven distribution of
sample collection, the analytical results
can still provide a general overview of world coal quality. The USGS
intends to present the WoCQI data in
reports and, when possible, in Geographic Information System (GIS)
products that cover important coal
bearing and producing regions.

Recommended download procedures due to large
file size—right-click (PC) or control-click (Macintosh)
and save file to hard drive. Opening file from hard drive will
result in a faster load time.

Download Suggestion

Recommended download procedures due to large
file size—right-click (PC) or control-click (Macintosh)
and save file to hard drive. Opening file from hard drive will
result in a faster load time.

This report is preliminary and has not been reviewed for conformity with
U.S. Geological Survey editorial standards and stratigraphic nomenclature.
Any use of trade names is for descriptive purposes only, and does not imply
endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Data tables for each chapter from OFR 2006-1241 are available in Microsoft
Excell format. Download the data
tables (ZIP, 150 KB).

The chapters are available in Portable Document Format (PDF). Download
the chapters (ZIP, 120 MB).